The present invention relates to systems and methods that are used to facilitate enhanced services related to pre-paid telephone calling cards and, more specifically, to systems and methods for debit or stored value account calling cards.
It is well known that pre-paid telephone calling cards (xe2x80x9cpre-paid cardsxe2x80x9d) have become widely used to obtain telephone calling services such as long distance calling services, etc. Consumers can purchase pre-paid cards from retail stores and use the same to obtain access to telephone services to call friends and family all over the world. As such, many different kinds of pre-paid cards are now available. Consumers can purchase pre-paid cards having a variety of calling options (domestic calling options, international calling options, etc.) and a wide selection of pre-paid values. For example, consumers can purchase domestic-use calling cards that are charged with 100 domestic call units (i.e., a unit is typically equal to one telephone service minute, but may be associated with some other amount of timexe2x80x94e.g., 50 seconds, etc.).
The appeal of pre-paid cards to consumers is due in large part to the fact that pre-paid telephone calling cards often allow consumers to realize savings associated with making telephone calls. For example, pre-paid cards often allow consumers to avoid the costs associated with using a conventional telephone calling card that is associated with a particular telephone line (e.g., an access call service charge that is added to other toll-call rates and charges). As a result of their appeal, many retailers have begun to offer and sell pre-paid cards. Since a relatively large selection of pre-paid cards can be stocked and displayed without requiring significant retail floor space, retailers can enjoy maximized revenues relative to small sections of their leased or owned storefronts.
Despite the appeal of pre-paid cards to both consumers and retailers, such market acceptance has created serious problems for providers of pre-paid cards and related telephone services. In particular, providers of pre-paid cards have been forced to distinguish their products in order to effectively compete. To date, the only effective way to distinguish one""s pre-paid cards has been to continuously lower telephone service rates to the point of extremely thin or negative margins. And, unfortunately, pre-paid cards that promise the xe2x80x9clowestxe2x80x9d telephone service rates often are not sufficient to capture and retain pre-paid card customers.
Another type of card often sold/distributed by retailers is a debit type card that has become known as a xe2x80x9cstored value card.xe2x80x9d A consumer can purchase a designated value type card or xe2x80x9cpre-loadxe2x80x9d an amount of money onto an existing card that can be used to buy goods and services. Such debit type cards have become quite popular, especially at convenience markets, etc. to allow consumers a quicker way to pay. Unfortunately, however, there is no current way to combine the benefits of pre-paid cards with those of stored value cards in a single general-use type debit card. As such, consumers must purchase two different debit type cards to engage in debit transactions such as product sales and to obtain telephone services.
Thus, there exists a need to provide systems and methods that will allow providers of pre-paid and stored value cards to offer enhanced services in relation to such cards without requiring telephone service providers to lower their telephone service rates to unreasonable levels. To be viable, such systems and methods must allow users of pre-paid cards to easily take advantage of such enhanced services while, at the same time, using pre-paid cards to obtain conventional telephone calling services and to buy products and services by linking such pre-paid cards to corresponding enhanced services.
The present invention solves the above-described problems associated with pre-paid telephone calling cards by providing systems and methods that facilitate the provisioning, processing, and use of enhanced services in relation to pre-paid telephone calling cards.
By providing such systems and methods, providers of pre-paid telephone calling cards will be able to effectively compete in the pre-paid card marketplace by offering better, more feature-rich services that consumers will rely on and come to enjoy. In particular, such systems and methods may be used to provide enhanced services to card purchasers who wish to utilize a pre-paid telephone calling card that is associated or linked to a stored value account (e.g., a stored value account often associated with a stored value type card or debit type card). In accordance with the present invention, a pre-paid card customer may purchase a pre-paid telephone calling/stored value card and, upon first use of the same, be prompted to obtain long distance telephone services or to purchase goods and services at a retail point of sale.
In accordance with the present invention, provided are systems and methods for facilitating the use of a pre-paid telephone calling/stored value card linked to a stored value card account (e.g., a debit type card associated with an available remaining money value, etc.). These systems and methods include and involve a data storage system for storing data related to a prepaid telephone calling/stored value card and a stored value card account. The stored value card account is maintained and managed by a stored value card processing system. The stored value card processing system stores a money value applicable to purchases and telephone calls. The systems and methods also include and involve a pre-paid telephone calling card processing system that is coupled to the data storage system and is configured to receive a request to initiate a telephone call and to instruct the stored value card processing system to adjust the money value in relation to the telephone call.